Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 259, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1919 — Rat Health Menace [ARTICLE]

Rat Health Menace

Costs the United States SIBO,000,000 a Year for Support. Public Health Service Urges That Measures Be Taken to Destroy Them. Wnsbingfr*"*—You P a y onfehalf. of_ one cent every day for the support cording~to Hgures 'compiled' by the United States public health service. There is one rat, at least, for- every person in the United States. This estimate is considered conservative, but coincides with-that for Great Britain and Ireland, and also with authoritative figures for Denmark, France and Germany. The annual upkeep per rodent was computed by the same authorities as SI.BO in Great Britain, $1.20 in Denmark and $1 in France. The depredations in this country will very probably exceed the estimate for Great Britain. One-half a cent a day is considered conservative, tiut even -on this com put a tlon, it costs th e Un 1 port its rat population. It is because of this terrific economic loss, and the additional fact are a constant menace to the public health that the public health service has issued a warning to the country to

I take the necessary measures to destroy them. There are three kinds of rats inclufled in the survey in this Country—the Norway or broWn rat, the black rat, and Alexandrian rat. The Norway rat. larger and more ferocious than the others, has pretty generally killed them off, and today the black rat and, the Alexandrian rat foupd except in seaports. ~ discovered America, has literally blazed a trail across the continent. Today it Is conservatively estimated that there are at leasts one rat for every dweller in the cities, and on the farm there least three rats for every person. Of many measures suggested for de-' stroying the rat, the public health service advocates one as most effective. It is rat-proofing the buildings so that rats cannot get in for food, thereby starring them to death. ’ A. - __